Sometimes, the very things that repulse us can be used to change the way we live for the better. We'd been throwing out mold for centuries before we realized it could be used as medicine. And now, one English scientist is researching how to make our homes run on urine.

Yup. Pee. Dr. Ioannis Ieropoulos at the University of West England in Bristol just published some research in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics that proves our liquid waste is rich in chemicals that could potentially run a bacteria-powered fuel cell. The science is all there--it's technically possible to create fuel cells that turn pee into power. The scientists under Ieropoulos's team just need to construct a prototype for the technology.

Not only would the cells run on an extremely renewable source, they'd also clean the urine so that it could be safely discharged back into the environment without any need for a waste treatment plant. So your home could theoretically run on a system that leaves no footprint and also does the expensive work of a sewage facility. Two birds with one stone, there--not bad.

Of course, the pee-powered cells wouldn't run on your urine--not exclusively, at least. You don't make enough of it no matter how well-hydrated you keep. The researchers on the project would be looking to make use of livestock urine, which is not always properly disposed of and which can have negative environmental effects if simply dumped into the water supply. Farm animals produce 38 billion liters of pee each day, so that's plenty of liquid gold right there. The problem would be transporting the urine effectively and in a timely fashion--an undertaking which seems like it might undo all the positive environmental effects of a pee-powered home by burning up petrol with pee trucks. Maybe we can find a way to get the trucks to run on urine, too?

It sounds almost good to be true, like a car that runs on water. But if these microbial fuel cells pan out, we might just be seeing a new use for our biological byproducts soon. That is, as long as people aren't too squeamish in adopting the new technology. It does sound weird at first glance, but then again, so did penicillin, I'm pretty sure. I for one would be more than proud to state that my house runs on cow juice. It's not really any grosser than liquefied dinosaur, when you think about it, and it certainly sounds like it would be a lot better for the planet.